


The Righteousness of Our Cause

by heyjupiter



Category: X-Men (Movies), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - Fandom, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-26
Updated: 2014-11-26
Packaged: 2018-02-27 02:37:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2675786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heyjupiter/pseuds/heyjupiter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amidst the chaos in Washington, DC after President Kennedy's assassination, Mystique searches for answers. She finds some from an unexpected source.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Righteousness of Our Cause

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lefaym](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lefaym/gifts).



> Title is an excerpt from the speech JFK prepared, but never delivered, for Dallas: _The righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength._
> 
> Happy Secret Mutant to Lefaym, and thanks to pocky_slash for beta-ing!

Raven had never been to a funeral before, at least not that she remembered. She supposed it was possible she'd been brought to the funerals of her birth parents, but she had no way of knowing that. It seemed unimportant. Then, when she'd lived with Charles, he'd always told her it was too dangerous for her to attend extended large gatherings like funerals or parties. He'd been able to make his parents believe that Raven had always lived with them, but he wasn't sure if he had the strength to convince the likes of cousins, business associates, and old family friends. "Anyway, these things are always _terribly_ boring," he'd say, breezily apologetic.

Raven doubted John F. Kennedy's funeral would be boring. 

Washington, D. C. had taken on the feeling of a strange, sad, holiday since the shocking announcement on Friday. To the rest of America, it meant that their President was mortal and fallible; to Raven, it meant that Magneto was. He'd gone to Dallas to protect Kennedy--to recruit him to their cause, if possible. The press was releasing information more slowly than Raven would have liked, but of course they would never be able to explain how a man who could control metal had failed to save the President's life.

Now the President had been dead for four days, and hundreds of thousands waited in long lines for the public viewing of the President's casket. Raven had passed through the line twice so far, each in a different form. The line moved quickly and no one got got much time to spend with the body, hidden beneath the wooden casket and an American flag. 

It didn't matter to Raven that she couldn't see the body. She wasn't here to gawk. She was here to gather intelligence. She'd heard bits of information from solemn Secret Service agents, chatty housewives who were eager to brag of their husbands' connections to the White House, and exhausted messengers. She'd heard that Kennedy's head was too damaged to be reconstructed by even the nation's most skilled mortician, hence the closed casket. She'd heard that Jacqueline hadn't changed out of her blood-stained suit until after her husband's casket had been draped in black crepe and placed in the White House's East Room. She'd heard whispers about the demands visiting royalty were making of local service staff. But she hadn't heard anything she wanted to hear--nothing about the President's mutant genes, nothing about Erik.

For this trip through the line, she was disguised as a bland, white, thirty-something male, the kind of person at whom no one would look twice. She trudged past two DC policemen who were having an agitated conversation. She slowed her pace marginally to listen and heard, "... had it coming!"

"No disagreement here," the other cop said. 

The line pushed Raven on before she could hear what they were talking about, and she wished Emma were there with her, but Emma and Angel had been late for their check-in, and Raven didn't know how else to contact them; that was the downside of being a small, guerrilla organization. She wished, again, that she had gone to Dallas with Erik. He'd insisted that he could handle the task himself, that it was too important for her to remain in DC and gather intel. She would continue to work on her assignment, although her objective had changed when Erik had failed to return.

Even without a telepath, it wasn't long before word reached her the old fashioned way. Lee Harvey Oswald, President Kennedy's ostensible killer, had been arrested and killed by a man called Jack Ruby. Raven wondered if that's really what had happened. She was sure Erik had been captured in Dallas, but the news had only been of Oswald, who hadn't been the man Erik had gone to stop. Could Erik have killed Oswald? Why would he?

She didn't have enough information, but she feared for the worst for Erik. Her eyes filled with tears at the thought of what they might do to Erik, a man who'd been through so much already. Luckily, everyone around her had been crying all day, and no one could tell she was crying for the wrong man.

That afternoon, at the rotunda, she noticed a man with a State Department badge carelessly sticking out of his pocket. She quietly stole it and made her way to Foggy Bottom to see what she could discover about the next day's funeral. Only "essential employees" were meant to be at the State Department building, and Raven wasn't sure if her new job qualified, but it was easy enough for her to slip inside. Raven didn't have a telepath's skill to make people forget they'd seen her, but she had become very good at acting as if she belonged somewhere. Charles was the first one to teach her how to do that, and she'd improved with time.

She found some of the information she was looking for, information about security details and foreign dignitaries. None of her true goal--nothing about Erik--but she hadn't really expected to find any of that here anyway. She had, however, noticed a familiar name on the list of those invited to the funeral mass at St. Matthews the following day. Charles Xavier. She supposed it wasn't surprising--the Xaviers were wealthy and well-connected. For all she knew, Charles might have gone off to parties with the Kennedys, while she'd stayed behind in Westchester. She wondered if Charles would attend the funeral. She wondered if Charles had known the President was a mutant.

Raven memorized what she needed to know and went back to her hotel room to make plans for the next day. Initially, she'd thought she would want to attend the President's funeral. But now she thought the more productive thing to do would be to use the distraction to infiltrate CIA headquarters. The CIA had been the first American organization to become aware of mutants, as she well knew.

She thought about calling Charles and asking for his help. If he were willing, he would certainly be able to find Erik. She thought he might--if not for her sake, than perhaps for Erik's. They'd been so close, back when they were all on the same side.

In the end, though, she just couldn't bring herself to do it. Sometimes she felt bad about how things had ended between her and Charles, but they _had_ ended. Besides, there was no guarantee that Charles wouldn't just turn her in, too. He'd shown that he cared more about keeping peace with the humans than standing with his fellow mutants, hadn't he? Mystique and the Brotherhood could rescue Magneto without assistance from Charles. And if she couldn't find the rest of the Brotherhood, she'd do it without any assistance. She'd been on her own before, and she could do it again.

The next morning, Raven left the city and infiltrated the CIA's headquarters easily. Unfortunately, she couldn't find any records about Erik or Magneto. She looked for Emma Frost, Angel Salvadore, and Azazel, whose real name she still didn't know. She looked up Charles's students. She looked under "M" for "mutants." She knew the CIA had records about them. Where were they? They must have been encrypted or hidden away somewhere. They were the CIA, after all, and Raven supposed she had underestimated them.

It was late afternoon when she finally left CIA headquarters with nothing to show for her time. She'd been distracted by worry and had opened the driver's side door of her rental car before noticing that the passenger seat was occupied. 

"Agent Jacobs, I have a few questions for you," Moira MacTaggart said.

Raven blinked once, remembering everything she could about the man whose badge and face she'd stolen. "Yes?"

"Number one, how is it possible that you've simultaneously been here all day and also took Agent White's place at the funeral."

Raven cleared her throat. "Ah, well, at the last minute I swapped with Agent, uh, Jones." 

"So you came into the office during the national day of mourning? Just to… look up a few things?"

"I felt like I was close to a breakthrough in my case. Really, Agent MacTaggart, what is the meaning of this?" Raven tried sounding angry, which could sometimes make other people back down.

Moira smiled. "Ah, I'm so pleased you remembered me, especially since we've never met."

"Haven't we? Well, I suppose I've… seen you around," Raven said. It sounded weak, even to her.

"Now, tell me, how's Charles doing?"

"I… don't know who you're talking about."

"Give it up, Raven. I've already been in phone contact with Agent Jacobs, who reported his badge missing immediately. Security is tight these days, if you hadn't noticed."

Raven tensed, but Moira didn't seem quite ready to arrest her. Raven didn't have a weapon, but she'd been training hard for the last year and thought she stood a decent chance of disarming Moira. Though being inside the car would make things trickier. While casually looking for a way out, she said, "If you know so much, why don't you know that I haven't spoken to Charles in over a year?"

Moira frowned. "Why not? Isn't he your brother? I… I'd thought that he was your brother, but there's no paperwork that I can find... "

Raven stared, unsure what to say.

After a pause, Moira admitted, "My memories from last year are… fuzzy. There are some things that don't quite add up. I was hoping one of you might be able to help."

"Oh," Raven said, with sudden understanding. "Charles must have wiped your memory." After everything that had happened in Cuba, she hadn't known that he would do that to Moira. Yet she wasn't surprised; Charles could be very casual with his abilities, unaware or uncaring of the effects it had.

Moira's eyes widened. "He can do that?"

"You can remember what I can do, but not what Charles can do?"

"Like I said… it's fuzzy. But also, I've been reading your file. And Magneto's, and all the rest of the _Brotherhood of Mutants_ ," Moira said, holding up a manila file folder.

Raven raised an eyebrow, hoping Agent Jacobs' face expressed the skepticism she felt. "Doing a little light reading on the national day of mourning?" she asked.

"I know Erik Lehnsherr was apprehended in Dallas. I assumed someone would come looking for him. It made the most sense that it would be you."

Raven took a breath. He'd been apprehended, then. Not killed, at least.

Moira continued, "I couldn't tell you where he was, even if I wanted to. He's not being held by the CIA. But I'm prepared to negotiate with you, Raven."

Raven fought a sneer.

"I know, I know, death to humans," Moira said, an ironic twist to her mouth. "I've been tracking the Brotherhood for the past year. I've read all your _manifestos_. But here's the deal, Raven." She produced a gun and aimed it steadily at her. "If you can help me get my memories back, I'll let you go, and as you leave, you might stumble across some information you've sought about your colleagues. Or, I can arrest you now."

"It's like I said. You'd have to talk to Charles. It's his mutant power, not mine."

"Well, where is he?"

Raven shrugged. "I assume he's still in Westchester, at his family estate. 1407 Graymalkin Lane." The address still came to her easily. "Oh, or--he might be here. For the funeral. I saw that he was invited to the Mass." She shrugged as if it didn't bother her either way.

Moira nodded. She lowered the gun, but didn't take her eyes off Raven.

"Moira… Mag--Erik didn't kill the President. He… he wanted to save him."

"I know," Moira said. "Listen. Not all humans are the enemy, okay? We don't all agree with… with everything." She opened the car door and stepped out, leaving the folder on the seat. "That said, if I find you here again, in any shape, I will shoot you." She walked away before Raven could reply, her heels clicking briskly on the pavement.

Raven exhaled deeply and pulled out of the parking lot before Moira changed her mind. Raven had been careless, and lucky. She decided against returning to the motel where she'd spent the past night. There was nothing for her there.

She changed shape again and drove aimlessly south. Eventually, she pulled into a gas station in the outskirts of Richmond, Virginia. She sat in the car and read the file Moira had left for her. To her disappointment, it had no information about Erik. 

Instead, it contained a proposal from an Army Sergeant Major named William Stryker, who warned of the "growing mutant menace." He wanted to train and experiment on mutants for the "greater good." The proposal included a long list of known mutants, with notes indicating the ones who were already in various American correctional facilities and the ones who were currently wanted for crimes. Every member of the Brotherhood was on the list, though none, yet, had been marked "apprehended." Raven closed her eyes.

She opened them when someone tapped on her window. "Excuse me, ma'am," the gas station attendant said. "Did you need some help?"

"No, thank you. I'll do it myself," Raven said.


End file.
